EFNIR: Monteverde Azure Noir

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Monteverde Azure Noir

This is review #140 in my series.  Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: There is no azure in this ink, despite the name.  It's just a plain, boring, neutral grey.  Let's blame the lighting, or something, for the hint of color in the absorbent/copy paper photo - those blue hints are absent in real life.  The scan is a little over-exposed (the ink is darker).  The zoom puzzles me - if you see a color other than grey, it's a lie.  The screen capture gives a good idea of darkness.  Cleaning was quick and easy.  (Dry Time: I thought I saw a smudge on the "8", but I was wrong.)

And here is a screen of the final result, for those not interested in the video:

Scan of Completed Review:

Zoomed in photo:

Absorbent Paper Closeup (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper):

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap

Previous Review: Colorverse Anti-Matter.

Want to influence the inky sequence?  Take the "next ink" poll.

Need to catch up on The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh?  Find the whole story here.

Hope you enjoy.  Comments appreciated!

[Sailor Kenshin]

I was waiting for the Absent Azure, too.  This is another ink I have, and like most MV inks, it's well-behaved.  But the name tasks me.

 

I do wonder if the other Noirs are worth getting.

 

Thanks again for the review!  

[yazeh]

Thanks @LizEF for a fantastic job on an uninspiring ink. I would've thought azure noir would be something along the lines of Noodler's Squeteague.

I was more entranced by Wavi-x and Geometetix...

[A Smug Dill]

10 hours ago, LizEF said:

There is no azure in this ink, despite the name.  It's just a plain, boring, neutral grey.  Let's blame the lighting, or something, for the hint of color in the absorbent/copy paper photo - those blue hints are absent in real life.

 

I did a chromatogram of it on filter paper, and a splatter on Arttec Como Sketch Pad 210gsm paper just now, and am waiting for the artefacts to dry. There is blue and purple in the chromatogram, but on the mixed media art paper all I see is a cool, teal-leaning grey.

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

I was waiting for the Absent Azure, too.

Maybe Quin & Makhabesh will trip over it while searching for the High Wizard...

 

1 hour ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

This is another ink I have, and like most MV inks, it's well-behaved.  But the name tasks me.

Does this mean yours is also "sans Azure"?  (I wondered if my sample went bad or something.)

 

1 hour ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Thanks again for the review!  

You're very welcome!

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

Thanks @LizEF for a fantastic job on an uninspiring ink. I would've thought azure noir would be something along the lines of Noodler's Squeteague.

You're very welcome!  And thanks!  Yeah, the name feels like bait-and-switch, or something.  My brother suggested perhaps it's "Azure-skies-at-night Noir"...

 

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

I was more entranced by Wavi-x and Geometetix...

You're very good at naming wizards!

[A Smug Dill]

Just now, LizEF said:

(I wondered if my sample went bad or something.)

 

I don't think so. The colour of the ink as a liquid, and the dried splash of it on the Arttec Como paper, match the colour of the label on the bottle, but not the insert inside the flimsy clear plastic box that houses it. I don't see any SITB or ‘oil slick’ floating atop the liquid inside the bottle.

[LizEF]

30 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

I did a chromatogram of it on filter paper, and a splatter on Arttec Como Sketch Pad 210gsm paper just now, and am waiting for the artefacts to dry. There is blue and purple in the chromatogram, but of the mixed media art paper all I see is a cool, teal-leaning grey.

Perhaps I was just so depressed because the Azure abandoned me that I couldn't see that cool lean, sec, I'll go look...  Nope, looks neutral to me.  (Of course, eyes, brains, paper, and lighting vary...)  Thanks for the additional research, though.

[LizEF]

Meanwhile, just as an FYI, no idea of the impact yet...  The android.process.media (which appears to be part of the file system on Android) is dying on the "phone" I've been using to record these videos, so I'm working on switching to my new "phone" (no service, just an Android device shaped like a phone).  I spent 2.5 hours yesterday reworking my jig¹ (camera and mic jack are in different places).  I'll be finishing up the jig today, and grinding down a bit of the add-on phone case that interferes with the mic jack when using a 90-degree cable rather than a straight-in cable.  Then I'll have to do a test-video to make sure everything works.  Hopefully it'll all be done before Monday's video.  If so, review 143 will be the first recorded with the new phone.

 

¹I now know all the features you don't want (and all the features I do want) in a router table + router. Pretty sure the idiots who designed the one I have (ancient) never tried using the thing.

[LizEF]

42 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

I don't think so. The colour of the ink as a liquid, and the dried splash of it on the Arttec Como paper, match the colour of the label on the bottle, but not the insert inside the flimsy clear plastic box that houses it. I don't see any SITB or ‘oil slick’ floating atop the liquid inside the bottle.

Thanks!

[Sailor Kenshin]

1 hour ago, LizEF said:

Maybe Quin & Makhabesh will trip over it while searching for the High Wizard...

 

Does this mean yours is also "sans Azure"?  (I wondered if my sample went bad or something.)

 

You're very welcome!

 

No, no, it is completely lacking in any Azure component.  It be gray.  So I wonder if Copper Noir, say, might also be....simply Noir.

[LizEF]

47 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

 

No, no, it is completely lacking in any Azure component.  It be gray.  So I wonder if Copper Noir, say, might also be....simply Noir.

Thanks for the confirmation.  I already reviewed Copper Noir - it definitely has Copper in it:

 

[Sailor Kenshin]

11 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Thanks for the confirmation.  I already reviewed Copper Noir - it definitely has Copper in it:

 

 

Wow.  I claimed to have a sample.  Now I'm not sure.

[mizgeorge]

Thank you @LizEF - you really are a treasure of a resource.

 

Like everyone else, I'm still looking for the Azure. Perhaps it got lost in translation somewhere...

[LizEF]

45 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Wow.  I claimed to have a sample.  Now I'm not sure.

So many inks, so little memory...

[LizEF]

23 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

Thank you @LizEF - you really are a treasure of a resource.

You're very welcome!    Thank you so much.

 

24 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

Like everyone else, I'm still looking for the Azure. Perhaps it got lost in translation somewhere...

I'm thinking my brother got it right, they got their Azure from a night sky rather than a daytime sky...  (At least, that's about the kindest explanation I can think of.)

[yazeh]

3 hours ago, LizEF said:

Meanwhile, just as an FYI, no idea of the impact yet...  The android.process.media (which appears to be part of the file system on Android) is dying on the "phone" I've been using to record these videos, so I'm working on switching to my new "phone" (no service, just an Android device shaped like a phone).  I spent 2.5 hours yesterday reworking my jig¹ (camera and mic jack are in different places). 

DO you really need a mic? I mean I'M sure many will miss the helicopters sound track... but you could put a Makhabesh style sound track....  

Anyway good luck with your new setup

 

[LizEF]

5 minutes ago, yazeh said:

DO you really need a mic?

Without the mic, you can't hear a thing - there may as well be no sound.  With the mic, we get the tippety tapping.  The aircraft noises have recently been much less because I switched to recording first thing in the morning - finished before 7am.  With the old phone¹, the mic plugged directly into the phone (it just worked that way with where the jacks are); with the new phone, I'll need a 90-degree cable and then plug the mic into the other end of the cable, which gives me more options on where to put the mic, so I'll experiment to see where it picks up the most tappety sounds...

 

9 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I mean I'M sure many will miss the helicopters sound track... but you could put a Makhabesh style sound track....  

 Hmm.  I wonder what sphinx-wings sound like... I'd guess like a large hawk or small eagle...  I'm thinking they don't make much sound...  The back of my brain shall consider this a while...

 

11 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Anyway good luck with your new setup

Thanks!

 

¹Which, of course, I managed to fix today.   (Still, it can't live forever, so I'm proceeding with setting things up for the new phone, then both will work.)

[Paul-in-SF]

6 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

I do wonder if the other Noirs are worth getting.

 

I have a few, and I like them all*. In addition to the Copper Noir already mentioned above, I have Ocean Noir (deep true blue), Mulberry Noir (blurply), Rose Noir (deep rose), Jade Noir (green/black) and Mercury Noir (I can't find a swatch for this and when I tried to create a new one, it's gone weird -- the bottle label looks a slightly browner version of Rose Noir -- see Goulet Pens for a swatch -- but the ink is very green. Maybe it went bad?)

 

*It's weird about the Mercury Noir, it's possible I never used it and never made a swatch. Maybe they put the wrong ink in the bottle and I never noticed (it's much lighter than Jade Noir, it's a sort of pea-green color with shading). I've checked all my other noir bottles and they're fine. This has been sitting in a drawer the whole time, so I don't think it's a reaction to light. Any ideas?

[LizEF]

53 minutes ago, Paul-in-SF said:

Mercury Noir (I can't find a swatch for this and when I tried to create a new one, it's gone weird -- the bottle label looks a slightly browner version of Rose Noir -- see Goulet Pens for a swatch -- but the ink is very green. Maybe it went bad?)

 

*It's weird about the Mercury Noir, it's possible I never used it and never made a swatch. Maybe they put the wrong ink in the bottle and I never noticed (it's much lighter than Jade Noir, it's a sort of pea-green color with shading). I've checked all my other noir bottles and they're fine. This has been sitting in a drawer the whole time, so I don't think it's a reaction to light. Any ideas?

I've heard about inks changing color after time - in the bottle.  I just can't remember the details and whether I read it here or on reddit.  The theory was that one of the dyes was unstable.  It may well have been a brown-ish ink as I recall someone saying it made sense as brown is often made with red and green, which suggested the red was unstable...  Sorry, nothing but vaguely remembered rumor.